Division III Men

RIT Spoils Peluso's Homecoming in Blowout

Midfielder Jordan Collins-Hartwig scored two goals and
added an assist in fourth-ranked RIT's 18-8 victory over
sixth-ranked Stevens and its former coach Gene Peluso. Both teams
came in undefeated.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- This was not exactly the
homecoming that Stevens men's lacrosse coach Gene Peluso
envisioned. Never mind the fact that his Ducks lost to RIT. It was
the manner in which they did so.

In a much-anticipated Division III battle between fellow
unbeatens who are jockeying for the top spot in the rugged Empire 8
Conference, fourth-ranked RIT – where Peluso coached for
eight years – blew out sixth-ranked Stevens, 18-8, on a cold,
wet, raw Saturday afternoon at RIT Field.

Peluso helmed the Tigers before leaving after the 2009 season
with a career 88-45 record.

"It's not so much that," he said of losing to his old team, "but
this is our first loss of the season so that's more disappointing.
We didn't feel like we did a great job today and they did a real
nice job of taking it to us. I know a lot of those kids over there
and in a weird way I'm proud of those kids."

RIT coach Jake Coon, who inherited some of Peluso's players when
he took over the program in 2010, improved his career record with
the Tigers to 25-6. This season, the Tigers are 11-0 overall
– RIT's best start since going 13-0 in 1985 – and they
are now 5-0 in the Empire 8, tied with 5-0 Nazareth and one game up
on 4-1 Stevens.

"Yes, I am shocked, no question, because I know that's a great
team," said Coon, referring to the one-sided result. "And if we
face them again [in the conference tournament], we have to respect
them. They are very dangerous."

What made RIT's goal total and margin of victory even more
impressive is that the 18 goals came in the final 50 minutes,
because the Tigers spent the first 10 minutes looking nervous and
disheveled in the attack zone.

"We had to get the nerves out and had to get used to the
weather, but we played through it," said midfielder Jordan
Collins-Hartwig, who had two goals and an assist. "We were like
'Hey, let's pick it up.' Coach got us going and we finished the
job."

Stevens scored the game's first two goals, but RIT goalie Bob
Tonnessen was superb after that and finished with 17 saves.
Meanwhile, RIT responded with the next nine goals, and the closest
Stevens would get the rest of the way was six goals on three
occasions, the last at 11-5 early in the third quarter.

"Once we got a couple transition goals, that got us settled,"
said attackman Kelso Davis, who scored five goals and three
assists. "They got the first two and then we went on a big run from
there. We got some good stops and just kept pushing the tempo in
transition."

Coon told his team that transition would be vital. The Ducks
like to play aggressive on the ride and they often utilize a 10-man
ride all the way up the field. It gave the Tigers some early
trouble, but almost none the rest of the day, and they simply ran
past the Ducks.

"We knew clearing the ball would be the most important factor
because they really pressure you on the ride," Coon said. "I
thought we did a good job beating their 10-man and we got
transition out of it."

Attackman Tyler Russell, RIT's leading goal scorer this year
with 38, scored RIT's first goal 10 minutes into the game, and
Chris Cherami tied it 50 seconds later. Goals by Ryan Specale and
Davis made it 4-2 after the first quarter, and then Russell, Davis,
AJ Tingle, M.J. Kiekebelt and Davis scored in the first 8:16 of the
second period for a 9-2 lead.

After the Ducks' Brandon Faubert scored his third goal of the
game and 46th of the season to cut Stevens' deficit to 11-5, the
Tigers went on another binge as Davis, Collins-Hartwig and Jordan
MacIntosh closed out the third quarter, and then a pair of goals by
Russell and one by Cherami made it 17-5 midway through the
fourth.

"That's kind of what we are, a run and gun team," said
Collins-Hartwig. "We like to push the transition and get goals off
that when we can. We kind of knew we'd get some transition goals if
we stuck our shots.It was a top 10 matchup and we wanted it
bad."